Johansson signs 2-year, $4 million contract with Wild

Marcus Johansson signed a two-year, $4 million contract with the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. It has an average annual value of $2 million.

The 32-year-old forward, who could have become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, was acquired in a trade with the Washington Capitals on Feb. 28 for a third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. He said he was open to returning to the Wild on Monday, three days after they were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the Western Conference First Round.

"I love everything about this place and this group and the team," Johansson said. "They have an unbelievable team. We're disappointed, we should have done better. ... I felt great since Day One. I loved it here last time. Unbelievable group of guys and staff and everything, very fun place to play."

Johansson had 46 points (19 goals, 27 assists) in 80 games this season, including 18 (six goals, 12 assists) in 20 games after he was acquired by the Wild. He scored two goals in six playoff games.

Johansson is on his second stint with Minnesota. He had 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in 36 games with the Wild in 2020-21 after he was acquired in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres for Eric Staal.

Selected by the Washington Capitals with the No. 24 pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, Johansson has 453 points (163 goals, 290 assists) in 833 regular-season games for Washington, the New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, Buffalo, Minnesota and Seattle Kraken. He also has 45 points (16 goals, 29 assists) in 109 playoff games.

"Having him back will really help," Wild general manager Bill Guerin said. "I think him and (Matt) Boldy had some good chemistry together. He looks like a different player than when we had him before. He was spectacular, so we're extremely excited about that."

The Wild are also exploring the options of re-signing defenseman John Klingberg and forwards Gustav Nyquist and Oskar Sundqvist, all pending UFAs who were acquired prior to the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline on March 3.

Defenseman Matt Dumba is another potential UFA.

"Matt and I had a really good talk yesterday," Guerin said. "We've been real open and honest with each other this whole year. It's tough but we'll be in contact with him.

"Matt's been a heck of a player for this organization for a long time now. I think honestly the last three months he's played just some great hockey for us. He simplified his game a lot. He limited his mistakes or turnovers or whatever, his high-risk stuff, and really settled in and played a solid role for us. It was some of the best hockey I'd seen him play. He's just a great kid and we'll be talking down the road, but we had a real good talk yesterday. He was good for us."

Selected by the Wild in the first round (No. 7) of the 2012 NHL Draft, Dumba had 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in 79 regular-season games and two assists in six playoff games.

"My heart is definitely here in 'Minny,'" Dumba said. "I want to win. I want to win here, but I really don't know what lies ahead. I haven't really given it too much thought. We'll just see how the chips fall. Just kind of have to play it by ear.

"I mean there's always a way. Crazy things happen in sports all the time. I'm definitely not ruling anything out. We just have to take it one day at a time and see how this all pans out."

The Wild (46-25-11) finished third in the Central Division this season and have qualified for the playoffs in 10 of the past 11 seasons. However, they have only advanced to the second round twice in that span (2014 and 2015), losing to the Chicago Blackhawks each time.

They will continue to be up against the NHL salary cap the next two seasons because of the respective buyouts of forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter, each of whom had four seasons left on a 13-year, $98 million contract ($7.54 million average annual value).

"Yeah, we're going to be tight," Guerin said. "We have looked at it a little bit already. We have certain numbers in mind for certain players."

Guerin said the Wild's goaltending is set with Marc-Andre Fleury under contract for one more season and plans to sign pending restricted free agent Filip Gustavsson, a 24-year-old who went 22-9-7 with a 2.10 goals-against average, .931 save percentage and three shutouts.

"We'll get something done," Guerin said. "His agent and I had talked earlier this year, and we just decided to put things on hold until after the season and see where everything fell. Filip had a great year, and we're excited to start the negotiation process and get him signed to a contract. Yeah, he's a good young goalie."

"…Things like that are going to be really important for us to have younger players in the lineup or cheaper, or maybe it's a veteran guy who's at a cheaper number. But we might have to make some moves to create space. There's a number of ways we can do it. Like I said, I haven't been doing too much of that the last couple of days, but we'll figure something out."